Glad you liked it!
From my experience with it, the EastWest's orchestra package is pretty great, but it's hard to learn how to use it properly (at least has been like that for me😅). I've heard the new OPUS version of it is a bit easier to use, but haven't upgraded yet so I cant really say 😁.
I saw you use Ableton, is there some features missing from it that you would need Cubase for?
Reaper could be a good cheaper alternative, since a lot of features like expression maps and other stuff in Cubase are also available in Reaper as add-ons made by users.
Really? I have heard of Reaper, but didn't know it was like Cubase. That is cool. Thank you. Aw, Ableton is great. But it has features that are more for live music and really great for large orchestrations. It does not have the note function that Cubase has, like the staff and such. However, I have found it to be very useful compared to what I used to use (which was LMMS). I will look into that then! I use The Orchestra Essentails from SonuSCore. It is a really well made collection of samples. Much better than others that I have used in the past.
Ah, if you really need a good/easy to use score view, then I wouldn't recommend Reaper.
The score view is really basic in Reaper, and entering notes in it is really not intuitive, the one in Cubase is a lot better since they recently upgraded it a bit.
But even if the score view pretty good in Cubase, I still like to compose big arrangements like this in notation first, since inputting notes in the Cubase score view has always felt a bit cumbersome when i've tried it.
Cubase and Reaper both have trials, so you could test out the trials to see how they both feel to use for you. Learning a DAW takes time so I would really recommend using the full trial periods to get a feel for both of them.
If you need some other sounds to use with The Orchestra Essentials, and you might already know these, but the free version of the Spitfire BBC Orchestra is pretty good and then there is the FREE ORCHESTRA 1 & 2 by ProjectSAM, Blueprint series by Fracture Sounds and SineFactory series by Orchestral Tools. If you haven't used any of those, I highly recommend taking a look, since there's a lot of good stuff included in them.
Wow! Yes, I have used BBC and the SAM. I like them a lot. But those other ones sound good too! I will check them out.
Oh, in that case. I will stick with Ableton haha. As for notation programs: Which do you prefer? Dorico or Musescore? I have not spent much time using either yet so I don't know. Again, thanks for these tips! They are very useful to me.
I'm currently using Dorico, mostly because I use Cubase, which is by the same company.
I'm hoping that they will one day make the workflow between the two apps really seamless.
I've also used Musescore quite a bit, and it's really great and FREE! If you just need a notation program to write in, Musescore is great and has some good stock sounds too.
I'd recommend Musescore since it's free, but later on if you one day get Cubase, you could then maybe get Dorico.
Just wanna point out that you really don't need get Dorico even if you use Cubase, Musescore works just as great! It's just that i own the Noteperformer soundset which I used to use with the Sibelius notation program before Dorico was released, and then changed to Dorico when they started supporting it.
This is a scrapped track from the last Impressions OST jam that i used Musescore for (the sounds are their free MUSESOUNDS sound package!):
https://musescore.com/user/14415026/scores/21145336/s/33mDi2?share=copy_link
OH Wow! Thank you. Some how I missed the message you sent here. I have both actually. But I only have the free version of Dorico. But yeah I am leaning very much towards Musescore for it is free and has lots of good features. And wow. I am in love with that track you shared with me. So good! Thanks again. This has been so helpful! (I am going to be making my next song with Musescore, a piano song that I have not yet had the chance to put in digital format yet.) Good luck on your next project!
